End of Time
End of Time, formerly known as Cleft of Dimension, is a fantasy game based on Final Fantasy & Chrono Trigger / Chrono Cross themes, with some influence from the Seiken Densetsu / Secret of Mana themes, which as of September, 2012 was in open beta, pending announcement of official opening. Overview The game is based on the ROM codebase, which itself is derived from Merc and DikuMUD. Enough work has been done with the codebase that the game's coder's considers it a further derivative from ROM called "EoT Custom". The game world consists of areas inspired by and described as though they were in fact areas from the source material. While the vast majority of the game is text based, there is an occasional area that is created using ASCII art to mirror the layout of the area from the source material. While the areas themselves are inspired by specific towns, dungeons, caves, etc. from the games, the world itself has an original world map and overall is considered an original world. Gameplay consists of systems at times directly inspired by systems found in the source material such as the concept of Limit Breaks (many Final Fantasy games), Elemental Fields (Chrono Cross), and Class Promotion (Seiken Densetsu 3), systems inspired by other games or game systems such as Merits/Flaws in character creation (Vampire: the Masquerade), "Combination" Magic Spells (Grandia), Experience Gain through skill use (Fallout), and systems unique to the game itself, such as the Elemental Star, Stacked Casting of Spells, and much more. Additionally, extensive modification of the exiting systems have significantly altered the experience of someone familiar with the traditional ROM setting. Significant changes to the base system includes detailed character creation, the removal of hunger/thirst, the need for lights in dark rooms and movement points, a complete rewrite of the way combat and magic casting is handled, a move to "wait time" as a cool-down for skills instead of lag and a command queue, a high emphasis on character customization, slimmed down equipment slots, a move to 4 base stats (PWR, WIL, VIT, AGI), along with the rewrite of nearly every skill or spell that remained and much more. Socially, the MUD is Roleplay encouraged, Player-Killing restricted, and is centered largely around the three major governments (Baron, Empire, Shin-Ra), which are the main player ran clans in the game. Players may chat via numerous global channels along with a few other local channels. The MUD advertises itself as being newbie friendly with an aim to attract new players, both inexperienced and experienced. History Genesia (1999-2000) The codebase was originally setup under the name Genesia, using the ROM 2.4 beta release, in 1999 by a developer who went by the name of Guion. Guion was the coder and one of the primary game builders, and was the active "Head Builder" on a Final Fantasy based game by the name of Realmz of Delusion. Two player/builders on Realmz of Delusion joined with Guion to develop their own world within the overall universe of Genesia. Under the name Hades (who went by Diablos on RoD and every other subsequent game he has developed on since) and Odin, they were to be both the principle developers and deity of the planet they called Mythica. Other than a handful of areas, including the world map for Mythica, and some basic gameplay changes (such as the addition of jump/climb/crawl exits, and the beginnings of converting the "practice" system to a "learn" system), little major development occurred during this phase of the codebase. Cleft of Dimension (2001-2003) The next stage of the codebase development occured when Realmz of Delusion was shutting down. A handful of the builders and players, including Guion, Diablos, and Odin, sought to keep the playerbase from scattering and made the decision to create another Final Fantasy based MUD for the staff and players of RoD move to. The codebase Genesia, with at least some level of development, a world map created (that served as the basis for the new MUD's world map), and numerous ROM bugs fixed, was chosen as the source for the new Cleft of Dimension. The original development team consisted of Leer (whose main duties involved coding), Diablos (whose main duties included world direction/design, building, dealing with players), Bahamut (who served as the original Head Builder), Rakka (the initial lead Quest Immortal), and Rose (provided server space, dealt with player housing and restrings), along with Guion (building) and Odin (building). As Cleft of Dimension, the codebase saw a very early burst of moderative development. The development team had a month's notice about the closing of Realmz of Delusion and laid out a timeline of two weeks to have enough development in place to give the address to the playerbase of RoD, with an additional two weeks until RoD closed to get the word out to as many people as possible. Within this initial four weeks, nearly a dozen areas were complete along with further basic code development, along with the general game structure, clans added, and other basic game design decisions. During the first year of this phase of development of the codebase, gameplay additions included things such as the addition of the basics of the code that handled Class Promotion (known then as SFKAR - the System Formerly Known As Remort and consisted of a single promotion at 50), the bulk of the Random Battle Code, the addition of several new skills and spells, dream code, arena quest code, the clan system, server flags such as double exp and pk ban, installation of room/obj progs, several additions to the programs system, and others. Area progress within this phase of development also saw the completion of around 60 areas. In mid 2002, a few of the original developers had moved on from the game and Diablos had a bit of a falling out with a particular group of players and a couple of the remaining developers. After a few month hiatus from the game, Diablos returned to the game but found his spot had been filled by one of the players he had a falling out with. More of the original developers had left the project during Diablos' absence and both the tone of the game and many of the original plans had also changed direction. After several off and on months of attempting to find a place in this new status quo, Diablos and another player-immortal by the name of Tyladras/Xeno had decided that branching off from Cleft of Dimension would be the best way to proceed for everyone involved. After discussing this with all of the original founders that Diablos was still able to contact, in early 2003 a copy of Cleft of Dimension was set up on another server and renamed End of Time. End of Time Phase 1 (2003-2004) The initial phase of End of Time ran from 2003 to 2004. During this phase, a particular and immediate emphasis in the development of the codebase was focused on setting itself apart from its parent MUD, Cleft of Dimension. Tyladras acted as coder for the game while Diablos served a similar role to that he performed on CoD as lead world designer. To that end, the MUD was renamed, the color scheme was changed throughout all points and made to be more consistent than CoD's color scheme was. Any areas added in the time period between Diablos' initial hiatus and the formation of End of Time were removed and any code that was added or changed was also rolled back to around that time. The old world map, political structure of the world and many of the early areas such as the hometowns were scrapped. A new world map was designed from the ground up, the clans were reduced to just three to emphasize the three major ruling governments of the world, several new areas were added to both replace many of the existing areas and to add more. Some race names were changed, others were scrapped while a few new ones were added. The clan code was changed to encompass ranks and divisions, the aesthetics of nearly everything was changed including new who list and score sheet formats, various improvements or additions to the Online Creation System and program code were added along with numerous bug fixes and skill additions and modifications. Like Cleft of Dimension, the bulk of development on the codebase happened within the first few months of development. Over a period of time, progress ultimately grinded to a halt and the MUD sat empty for the better part of the last quarter of 2003 and the first half of 2004. The MUD would shut down in the summer of 2004. End of Time Current Phase (2005 - Present) In late 2006, Diablos was toying with the idea of returning to MUDing. An individual who had played both Realmz of Delusion and Cleft of Dimension under the name of Talen (today known as Grief on EoT) had brought up his own MUD by the name of Landz of Delusion, a direct derivative of the old Realmz of Delusion codebase. After a bit of time, Diablos decided to lend a hand to this MUD, and in return, the player offered to get server space for End of Time. Diablos agreed, and shortly after, Talen helped walk through Diablos through setting the MUD up on the new server. For a time, Diablos built a handful of areas to be shared between both MUDs. After a little bit of time, Landz of Delusion closed and Diablos put his focus entirely on End of Time, with the first several months focused on rebuilding old areas. Guided by ideas from both the early days of Cleft of Dimension and many that had been brainstormed by the early and original EoT team, Diablos began dabbling in the code with help from Ryzic, the owner of the server that End of Time was hosted on. Throughout the next handful of months, Diablos began making his first bit of code changes to the game while Ryzic handled a bit of the more complicated code changes. By mid 2006, the coder known by many things even on End of Time, but perhaps most notably known as Midboss, joined the development team about the same time Ryzic was moving on. Along with continue to help aid Diablos in learning the ropes, he handled many of the most severe re-writes of the codebase, including but not limited to a complete rewrite of the magic system, the addition of elemental magic fields, the reworking of the casting interface, the ability to stack or combine spells along with all of the casting modification commands, the current summoning (or mana spirit) system, a large overhaul of the combat system including being speed based as opposed static rounds, the addition of the Tension/Assault/Defend features of the combat system, the change from "lag" time to wait time, the fully customizable limit break system, completion of the "learn" system, countless bug fixes, countless balance adjustments, a complete rewrite of the way the world map is displayed, countless tweaks/enhancements/mods to various existing systems, dice command, symbolic "goto" locations, chocobo racing/riding system, weapon selection in character creation along with some other behind the scenes code, clean up with character creation, new material table for objects, hit rate, evade, accuracy, gunblade code, super sonic quest system, various program command and trigger additions, various OLC enhancements such as a much smarter auto weapon and auto armor code, the mobile priority system in combat, numerous skill rewrites, the ability to max a skill and learn a new one from it, exp gain from skill use, the entire item synthesis system, bow & arrow system, a vast "variable" system that allows for countless possibilities throughout the game including mobile quest tracking, the delay action system, countless other behind the scenes additions. Midboss' code changes and overall influence on the game has certain been one of the driving factors in the game being what it is today. In the years that followed, Midboss came and went always pushing to game beyond what was ever originally envisioned, but eventually moved on as well. Diablos became more and more capable of handling whatever code changes the MUD needed, eventually transitioning more to "coder" than builder. Since about 2009, Diablos has been the lead code developer with occasional new systems added by Vicolan, including the systems of combination techniques, additional expansion of the autoweapon and autoarmor code, the account system, among other things. By mid 2012, the codebase was considered finally developed enough to start pushing toward opening. Marking a huge milestone for the game, it was officially listed on the MUD Connector as of October 1, 2012, with an announcement on opening day expected shortly after. The World Setting This will contain general information on the world setting, including how the various games blend together to form a cohesive world, along with at least some detail on the history of the world. Races This will include information and skill sets for all races. Classes Information on the classes available, along with information on class promotion. Clans List the major governments. Area List List the divisions of the game into the various "worlds" and completed areas for all. Gameplay Customization This will include information about Character Creation, Limit Breaks, Victory Dances, Custom Strings for Lycanthropes and Espers. Combat Will include information on MUD Specific elements of combat including wait state, Tension/Assault etc. commands, Mob Tracking, Random Encounters, Independent Combat Rounds Magic System Rewrite of magic including wait time coming before spell fires, modification commands, elemental nature of everything, spell stacking, combo spells, speedcast, summons. Racial Templates Credits *DikuMUD by Hans Staerfeldt, Katja Nyboe, Tom Madsen, Michael Seifert, and Sebastian Hammer *MERC 2.1 code by Hatchet, Furey, and Kahn *ROM v2.4 copyright © Russ Taylor *Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu, etc. is copyright © Square Enix Notes External links and further reading *Website for End of Time *Facebook Page for End of Time *MUD Connector Listing for End of Time **Vote for End of Time on The Mud Connector *Mudbytes Listing for End of Time *Top MUD Sites Listing for End of Time **Vote for End of Time on Top MUD Sites *MudGamers Listing for End of Time *MUDStats.Com Listing for End of Time *Telnet Link for End of Time (port 4000) *Telnet Link for End of Time (port 23) Category:ROM Category:Final Fantasy